A turbomachine, for instance a gas turbine or a steam turbine, is used for power generation. Such a turbomachine comprises a stator with at least one stator component and a rotor with at least one rotor component.
A rotor component of the rotor is an axial shaft with a plurality of rotor blades. The rotor blades are arranged annularly around the axial shaft.
Stator components are a (main) stator ring, a plurality of guide vanes—usually comprising aerofoils and platforms—for guiding working fluid or working media of the turbomachine (hot gas from a combustor in case of a gas turbine and superheated steam in case of a steam turbine) and a vane carrier ring for carrying the guide vanes. The stator ring and the rotor shaft are coaxially arranged to each other. The guide vanes are arranged annularly around the vane carrier ring.
The guide vanes assist in guiding the working fluid for the impingement of the working fluid on the rotor blades of the rotor.
The rotor comprises rotatable rotor components.
Between rotor parts and stator parts annular openings may be present that need to be sealed. Also between adjacent stator parts sealing may be needed.
A variety of different sealing solutions are known, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,793, EP 0 731 254 A1, EP 1 323 896 A2, or U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,656.